A friend and I spent quite a bit of time yesterday trying to get Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles to work on Netplay, unfortunately coming to the conclusion that it is not currently possible. We were able to set up pretty much all of the pieces of what we thought would be necessary, only to come to a couple of roadblocks that keep us from our goal. The first, which would potentially be manageable (though annoying) was that using VBA-M as a GBA controller in Dolphin slows it down to about 50% regardless of the computer's specs or the settings used. We thought this might be due to some sort of disagreement in CPU usage while they were linked. It worked, anyway, and we would have been willing to deal with it if we were able to actually play the game together. The second hindrance ensured that we would not be able to do so, however. Though we were able to get Netplay to work fairly well, it essentially just resulted in one of us playing the game while the other got to watch; FFCC requires GBA controllers in order to play multiplayer, and Netplay does not allow for GBA controllers to be used. So, we're kept from playing this nostalgia-filled multiplayer experience together at all. Physically playing it together is impossible as we don't live anywhere near each other.
Anyway, my questions would be:
1. Is there or will there ever be a way to increase performance while using VBA-M or any other possible GBA emulator as a controller in Dolphin?
2. Will GBA controllers be allowed in Netplay at any point? Why exactly are they not allowed currently?
I realize that this is a really obscure and likely difficult problem that would only please a minority of people (considering this can only be used in a select few games), and I also realize that the developers are already busy with much more relevant issues. Still, this is something I hope to be possible at some point even if it isn't necessarily soon, so I'd really appreciate an answer.
1. Did you try to lower the priority of VBA-M to a lower setting. For my case it is always on High which you can check in task manager to determine how much power the application is recieving. CPUtemp is another great way to determine if Dolphin is getting enough Speed from the cores of the processor when you have it open.
2. I not sure entirely if netplay is compatible with VBA-M unless you try Typing the Host IP in Joybus which you probably tried.
After some tinkering, I've found a makeshift way of doing this. VBA-M works as a controller on the same computer or over a LAN connection, but not when an external IP is used in Joybus. I realized that using Hamachi in order to connect another computer's VBA controller to the host's game actually works the same as connecting one over an ordinary LAN connection. Then, in order for the other person to see the screen, I can set up a livestream video. It "works" - the controllers are in the proper state, both inputs work, and both people can see the same screen.
However, alongside a few seconds of video delay in the livestream - which could be bearable - the link slowdown is the main issue with this method. If used on the same computer, the VBA-Dolphin connection slows FFCC to about 56% speed, and that's only if Turbo Boost is on for the VBA. If used over any form of LAN, which includes Hamachi, it slows it down to 2-3% speed. I tried changing CPU priorities, but it didn't affect performance at all; is there anything else I may be able to try?
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium x64
Processor/CPU: Intel Core i5-3210M CPU @ 2.50 GHz
Video Card/GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 650M 2GB
Memory/RAM: 8GB DDR3
My friend has better specs, but he experiences about the same slowdown.
In other news, we tested the entire process I mentioned and it worked. It slowed to about one frame every minute or two, but the proof of concept was successful. For now, we've come to the conclusion that there's nothing we can do to get it to run at a playable speed... As far as we know, it would probably take a code warrior with a lot of time and dedication to get this working properly.
(01-07-2013, 07:54 PM)Serrated Wrote: [ -> ]After some tinkering, I've found a makeshift way of doing this. VBA-M works as a controller on the same computer or over a LAN connection, but not when an external IP is used in Joybus.
Are you sure the required ports are opened in your and your friend's routers and that no firewall is blocking it? I can't test it myself right now because I know for sure that the ports here are closed and I can't do anything about it, but when I come home this weekend I could try it.
Note: I don't know anything about connecting VBA-M to Dolphin appart from what you wrote and what I read on the internet just now^^
Hey Serrated,
just like you I've wanted to play this game with my friends either over the net or locally. But the problem is that the linking feature does not really work with ffcc as of yet. You can connect multiple vba-m instances (even up to 4) to dolphin and you're able to control characters, but the connection between the emulators is really slow, sync is often lost, etc. (you can see for yourself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyD9i1oPKIA )
The issue 3177 was posted September 2010
http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/iss...&start=400
very little has happened since then.
When running Zelda 4 Swords with 4 VBA-M instances and dolphin on my machine everything works flawlessly. But with ffcc I get about 50% speed with 2 players and 5 or 10% with 4 players. My PC is a little more powerful compared to yours, yet I have just the same problems. And netplay (via hamachi/tunngle) seems to make things even worse due to lag etc.
So I'm with you in this niche of players wanting to play this game in coop. But there's very little hope without a developer tackling the problem.
If there is someone willing to at least look at the issue. I would be glad to help testing.
It's a really good game but square buried the multiplayer by setting gba's as mandatory. It would be great if dolphin could achieve bringing the game to a headacheless multiplayer fun.
Sorry about the late response my Laptop died on me, but it really doesnt seem like as of 3.0 or even 3.5 netplay with VBA-M or even a wii remote isnt supported. I even tried this out but I was getting some slowdown with the specs that I have so Im afraid that it doesnt work.
Since the "Game boy Advance" is a peripheral for the Gamecube, then makes sense to have a GBA Emulator built in Dolphin
Although, it makes no sense to have a GBA and a Gamecube Emulator running on the same PC, would be better to have the GBA Emulator on a Andriod/PSP/Windows Phone and add connectivity to the Emulator.
(01-11-2013, 08:11 PM)Gir Wrote: [ -> ]Since the "Game boy Advance" is a peripheral for the Gamecube, then makes sense to have a GBA Emulator built in Dolphin
Although, it makes no sense to have a GBA and a Gamecube Emulator running on the same PC, would be better to have the GBA Emulator on a Andriod/PSP/Windows Phone and add connectivity to the Emulator.
why does it make no sense? plug 4 controllers into your pc and assign each of them to one emulator and it works. played 4 swords like that with friends and it worked out perfectly fine.